The Will to Fight
by SoulMatter
Summary: Over 3700 years later, a cracking sound fills the forest. In the Z 1 Stone World, a new person is about to change the tides of the conflict between Senku and Tsukasa. But first, he needs to answer an important question. How the hell is leather made again? OC-Insert (Not an SI). Sporadic Updates.
1. Chapter 1

**The Will to Fight**

**Chapter 1 - Depetrification and Ishigami Village**

_Crack. Crick, crack. CRACK!_

The stone shell shattered, and he took a few gulps of air as he gasped, stumbling forwards and falling to his knees. He had done it. After all this time, he'd become free of the petrification. And all it took was thinking about how bored he was. "Argh!" He grunted, getting to his feet, before looking around. "Wow. Just how much fucking time has passed, if the place where I had been petrified was right in the front porch of my home…"

He trailed off as he tried to scratch his head with his right hand, only to feel something that wasn't skin. Lowering down his arm, he then saw that it was still petrified below the elbow, up to his fingers. And he could perfectly move them, as if the stone was a glove. He frowned. "Maybe it still has some side effects…"

Sighing, he focused on the forest surrounding him. A few birds chirped in the sky, and he began to walk forwards, remembering that the river was a few blocks away from his house. How did he know where the river was? Easy. When he had looked around, he noticed the tree next to him, that was the same tree in his house's courtyard. And fortunately, it still had the inscription that he had made with his former girlfriend, that he knew faced the river.

"Whoa, what the hell!" He exclaimed upon seeing the abnormally large river, and gaped at it in astonishment. "I really need to know just how long has it been…" He crouched down and splashed his face, wetting his hair in the process. When the water subsided, he noticed a large crack-like scar going down from his right temple to his left cheekbone. He frowned. Probably a side effect of staying petrified for too long. Shoving that aside, he still looked pretty much the same, with his caramel hair messily falling down to his shoulders, and his grey eyes.

A growl earned his attention, and he turned around, before grinning. He started opening and closing his petrified hand, as he absently noted four lions surrounding him. "Time to get started."

* * *

He frowned. "This was easy… Too easy." Muttering to himself, he went on to skin the lions. "Let's see… If I remember correctly, open skinning is the way if I want to tan it. Yeah, that's it."

First, he went on to make a rudimentary knife using a sharp rock he found on the riverbed, a sturdy branch, which he broke, before modeling it with the sharp rock, and using some vines to tie it all up. The process took around two hours, and at the end, he was ready to skin the lions.

Clutching the knife tightly, he first cut off the genitals, before piercing the first lion near the tail, before cutting up to right before the throat, making the cut a shallow one. Inserting the knife under the skin with great care, he peeled the hide back several inches, before moving on to the next step and opening the chest cavity, splitting the sternum. Reaching inside, he cut the windpipe and gullet as close to the base of the skull as possible.

Taking a deep breath, he began the bloodier part of the skinning, taking off the internal organs, being especially careful not to pierce the bladder, in order for the urine not to contaminate the meat. After that, he cut a circle around the anus, before pushing it inside the carcass and taking it out. Right after, he rolled the carcass and waited for all the blood to drain. Making a cut along the inside of the limbs, he slowly peeled the skin off the meat, using the knife in a slicing motion to cut the membrane between both.

With that, he successfully separated the skin from the meat, and smiled proudly to himself, before frowning again. "Without salt, the meat will spoil, and I won't be able to tan the skin to make leather… Gotcha!" Clapping his hands as he remembered something, he set upon skinning all the other lions, and cleaned the pelts in the river, before making a small makeshift bag using them, stuffing all the meat and bones inside it.

Walking downstream, he soon reached the ocean, as the city he lived in was pretty close to it, all things considered. "Hello, endless source of salt!" He greeted the sea as he arrived, before placing the bag on the ground and starting to work to make a leather drying rack. Hurrying because of the meat and the lion pelts, he quickly gathered four branches that were long enough to make four rectangles around 15.24 centimeters bigger than the lion pelts, and tied them together, making sure to tie very tight knots to prevent them from falling apart, just like with the knife. Good thing the nearby trees had many vines for him to use.

He grabbed a few large leaves, and placed all the meat and bones on top of them, to not let them touch to sand, before snatching one of the lions' canines and using it as a replacement for a needle. He made holes every 5.08 centimeters along all edges of the pelts using the canine tooth, he soon passed the vines through the holes, and tied them to the rectangles, stretching the pelts flat and tight. With that done, he propped up the racks against four nearby trees, and left them to dry after giving them a bath with the salt water, as he had already fleshed out the hides when he had skinned the lions.

* * *

"Note to self: It is really difficult to create fire." He deadpanned, salting the meat as he waited for the lions' brains to melt down into a soup-like substance around a few hours later. He had obtained the salt after placing some seawater in a sea turtle's shell that he had hunted earlier, and was now using the remaining salt to preserve the meat he wasn't cooking, that was pretty much most of it, including the turtle's meat.

"Gotcha! The brain soup is done!" He was aware he was skipping several parts of the process, but he simply didn't have the means to allow the hide to properly soak with the brain soup in the cold.

After washing them all with each respective brain soup, and waiting for it to soak, however improperly it was, he grabbed a heavy branch he procured from the trees, earlier in the day, and began to rub the hides, softening them. Next, he dug up a hole 0.1524 meters deep and double that wide, before making a support to place the hides in to be smoked.

A while later, he was proudly wearing some crude pants and a coat, stitched together rather roughly, along with a cape and a hood He neglected wearing shoes, as it would be easier to feel the ground while barefoot. "Wearing a lion pelt is awesome." He absently noted, running a hand through the hood he made with the skin of one of the lions' head and mane. Two lion pelts were used doing the clothes, while the other two's heads and mane were used to make the cape and hood. The remaining pelts were used to make a bag, leaving only one not to be used, so he had it separating the meat and covering the turtle shell containing all the salt he could gather from boiling the seawater.

He was ready to continue, when he saw and heard an explosion from the nearby mountain. "What the hell!?" He exclaimed, before hurriedly gathering his bag and rushing towards it. "An explosion… In this post-apocalyptic world, where every single piece of technology has rotted away, only one thing could make an explosion…"

Someone managed to make gunpowder from zero without technology! "A chemist, or at least someone who is a genius with science!"

As he sped through the forest, he finally allowed himself to think. '_Come to think of it, I've been having quite the stamina in this new Stone Age. Maybe…'_ He stopped for a second and took a deep breath, before the answer made itself clear to him. '_The air is way too clear! Maybe after hundreds, if not thousands, of years without pollution, the oxygen levels have risen! If so, this means my metabolism is through the roof, while also giving my organism a boost!'_

A grin spread across his face, but he soon stopped and took cover under a tree hollow, having smelt ozone in the air and seen the sky darken. "Fuck!" He cursed, abandoning his grin and frowning. "If they didn't stop to protect themselves from the storm, then the rain will wash away their tracks… Dammit, looks like I'll have to wait."

After a while, the rain let up, making him raise an eyebrow. "This fast? Must be a summer rain, so… Between June and August. That's where I am in time."

"SEEEEENKUUUUUUU! NO MATTER WHAT…"

He snapped his head towards the shout, and quickly dashed towards it, adjusting the vine that he tied to the bag and had strapped it around his torso, allowing the bag to sit comfortably in his back. Reaching up with his right arm, that he had covered with an extra long sleeve to hide his stone arm, contrary to his elbow-length left sleeve, he began scouring the path ahead as he climbed some trees to rush through the tougher branches.

He kept up his pace, all the while thinking to himself just on how would he act, meeting other people in this New Stone Age. He chuckled ruefully, as he caught himself doing that, and after pausing a little on his thoughts. "I guess I really am a little paranoid, as Hikari told me all that time ago…"

A crash, of something large and heavy falling on the ground, could be heard, and he quickened the pace. "A crash? Either someone was fighting and knocked over a tree, or a dead tree fell down. At this rate, I'm more likely to believe the first…" He mumbled, before stopping at the edge of a small clearing, standing on a half-crouch on a high branch.

"You are! The gentlemanly sorcerer who protected that woman!" A girl spoke up in shock, trapped by a rather large tree. She had amber eyes in a delicate and young face, and tied-up blonde hair. She also wore a black primitive dress, and weird stone shoes. "You're alive…!"

The one she was talking to was a young man around my age, with white hair with green tips, two bangs falling over his face, and red eyes. Two diagonal marks reflected against each other on top of the start of his eyebrows. He wore rudimentary animal skin clothing, of a lesser quality than even my low-quality lion leather. Strangely, he had the E=mc² equation on them. A few bags were hanging from his shoulders, and he was carrying what looked like a rolled up flag on a pole.

"No useless talking! We can do self-introductions later to your heart's content, so save your strength." He snapped at her as he rushed to try and lift the tree with his pole, but it obviously wasn't very useful. That tree must weigh around a ton, so the only way he could lift it would be with… A pulley. Maybe if he was the one who created the explosion, he could possibly do it.

When he obviously failed, the young man sat down and looked at the girl. "Can you hold out until sundown? If you're at your limit, I can gamble by using the last of the gunpowder to blast you out, but if you can hold on, even if it takes enough time to kill me, I'll 1 billion percent save you!" He took a breath, before shouting. "Come on! There's no way I'll know if you don't tell me! You have two choices, decide now! Which one!?"

The girl looked surprised for a moment, before answering. "Well, my organs and bones are fine. I can hold out!"

The young man instantly went to work, and the caramel-haired observer merely looked on in curiosity during the exchange, before deciding to come clear. "Mind if I help?" He spoke out loud and clear, and before anyone could answer, he jumped and delivered a mighty axe kick to the tree, cleaving it in half. Jumping away from it, he cleared some of the splinters that stuck to his clothes, before glancing at the surprised young man. "Well? Get on with it! The tree's remaining weight is probably less than half a ton, so you won't need to make many pulleys!"

The young man blinked blankly for a few moments, before snapping out of it and smirking, going back to his work. "You cleaved it in half with a single kick! Can you lift the tree!?" He shook his head, before realizing the young man had his back to him, so he couldn't see him, as such, he replied with a verbal negative. "Damn. Help me with this, then! Cut down a few round slabs of wood so I can make the pulleys as I make the rope!"

"On it!" He replied, snatching the small primitive hatchet out of the air, and cleaving the trees in one strike, courtesy of his boosted stamina and strength. "How many?"

"Two, just to be safe!"

"Gotcha!" Two more strikes and he had enough for the pulleys, so he went ahead and did the carving in a few swift strikes of his rudimentary knife.

A while later, and the pulleys were ready. As the young man tied up the ropes, he merely awaited for the chance to pull. "Back in the day, even primary school kids used to learn this." The young man spoke, giving the signal for him to pull the rope, lifting the tree stump with ease, freeing the girl. "First invented several years B.C.E, by old man Archimedes."

"Actually, there was evidence of the pulley being used almost two thousand years before Archimedes' time." He quipped, interrupting the young man, who shot him a slight annoyed glare at having his thunder stolen.

"One superhuman level of strength, can become even greater with this. This, is the pulley!" The young man moved on after glaring at him for a moment, while the girl watched in awe.

"...Incredible." The girl spoke as she sat up, looking at both him and the young man with a strange emotion on her eyes, that was hidden masterfully by gratitude. "No, not that Archi-something's wisdom and stuff. For that step-by-step problem solving, both of you continued to hack away with that axe and put together the parts, while trusting each other to do their part. Such unwavering confidence."

Then, she smiled at them, causing him to blush in embarrassment and rub the back of his head, and for the young man to adopt a strange expression of disgust with her words. "My name is Kohaku. And it seems that I have completely fallen for you."

The young man made to speak something, but he elbowed him slightly, shooting the young man a small glance and mouthing the words 'It's most likely platonic.' The young man understood, and he took a step forward to introduce himself. "I'm Taiga. Nice to meet you, Kohaku." With his piece spoken, he turned towards the young man with a raised eyebrow. "I came here because of the explosion. I assume it was you, as you mentioned gunpowder…?"

"Senku. And no, it wasn't me. That was probably my friends' fault, most likely to distract Tsukasa." The young man replied, giving them a name to match the face.

Taiga blinked. "The ultimate primate high schooler? Why was he fighting against you?"

Senku grimaced, as both males promptly began ignoring Kohaku to have their own conversation. "Let's just say that our ideologies do not match."

"Ah." Taiga spoke softly in response, nodding in understanding. "One of the worst causes for conflict."

It was at that point that Senku noticed Taiga's wardrobe. He blinked at the lion leather, before shooting the caramel-haired male a curious look. "How did you make these clothes?"

"Killed a few lions that attacked me, skinned them, and then tanned the skin to make low-quality leather." Taiga easily replied with a confident smirk, not noticing Kohaku's increasing anger at being ignored.

"You made leather? But how, you couldn't use any chemicals to do it…" Senku went straight into thinking, before remembering the alternative way to tan animal hides. "Oh! You used brain oil, right?"

Taiga nodded with an easy smirk once again, glad that his new acquaintance was capable of easily keeping up with him. Unfortunately, both males ignored the threat of the extremely annoyed Kohaku. "HOW ABOUT YOU STOP IGNORING ME!?"

* * *

Later that night, Senku was laying down on the ground next to a campfire, using his own animal skin to substitute for a blanket, and one of his bags for a pillow. Kohaku was sitting against a tree while holding two knives, one in each hand, and Taiga was in the tree above Kohaku, the sounds of his soft breathing and the fire's crackle being the only sounds around. "...Is it sleeping with knives a new human thing? Or is it just you?" Senku asked the girl, sweatdropping.

"It's because I don't trust you." She deadpanned with her eyes closed, before opening them and shooting a look at Senku. "Just because I'm interested in your actions doesn't mean I can trust you both. I've been living my life fending for myself, with my own abilities. Don't read too much into it."

Senku merely stared at her for a few seconds, before turning around. "Okay then. But hear this: If a lioness like you attacked me, I wouldn't stand a chance. So even if it is .1 second more, go to sleep already. My physical abilities suck."

"Lioness!?" Kohaku exclaimed, annoyed. "That hurts! Even for someone like me. Even though your actions are after that of a gentleman, your tongue is sharp at unprecedented levels. It'll cause you trouble one day…" She spoke the last few words ominously, but it obviously have no effect, as Senku had started to sleep halfway through her small rant. "Tch! Honestly…"

"Kohaku, can you please do as he says and sleep already? We're all exhausted from the day, and I even had to go back to grab my drying racks." A yawn interrupted her thoughts, before Taiga's tired voice cut through the quiet air. "So, please, kindly shut up, as I want to sleep…"

He was out like a light before he even finished, and Kohaku sweatdropped. Shaking her head, the girl looked at the wooden contraptions Taiga had fetched and left near his bag, having a curious expression on her face. "He used those things to make his clothes?" And the mystery rose. Just who were Taiga and Senku? The last thought on her mind before she fell asleep was both of them talking about things she could not comprehend.

Later in the morning, Kohaku leaned down to pick up her pot, as Taiga and Senku approached her, the former yawning as he pulled up his hood and adjusted the improved strap of his bag. Thank Senku for knowing how to make proper rope. "So, are you fighting that long-haired guy?"

"If by long-haired guy you mean Tsukasa, then he is." Taiga jerked his head at Senku, that nodded briefly. "I'll just move along for the ride, as I have no intentions of being alone."

"Is that so?" Kohaku asked, looking at him curiously as she straightened out, heaving the large pot. "Then, let's work together! I also have no intention of shamelessly backing down."

"Yeah, that's why I'm going to make a kingdom of science." Senku replied in the affirmative, making Taiga crack a smile under the hood that shadowed the upper half of his face up to his nose.

"Science? You mean that sorcery?" Kohaku asked, to which Taiga nodded. She nodded as well in response, as Senku continued.

"Anyways, for that, I need manpower."

"In that case, you should come with me." She replied, and began walking away, the two young men following her. "I'm headed back after I fetch some hot water."

"Hot water?" Both Senku and Taiga wondered, noticing a hot spring towards which Kohaku was heading. She filled the pot in silence, while Taiga passed his knife to Senku for the scientist to upgrade.

"I carry it back home and use it for a hot spring bath." She finally spoke, rising from her crouched position with a full pot of hot water. "For recovery purposes."

Seeing as Senku wasn't about to speak due to how busy he was chipping away at Taiga's knife, the latter asked in wonder. "Recovery purposes?"

Before Kohaku could reply, Senku spoke up with a weird expression on his face, even as he focused on the knife. "Why would a vigorous lioness like you have any need to recover? As far as I can see, you're 1 billion percent the epitome of health."

"I'm not a lioness!" Kohaku complained with an annoyed shout. "It's not even for me, it's for my older sister!"

"Oh, I see." Taiga stated, cupping his chin in thought, as he received the upgraded knife from Senku. "Thanks, Senku. Anyways, isn't being called a lioness a compliment?"

With Kohaku's inquisitive gaze, he continued the train of thought. "In lion prides, lionesses are typically the ones who hunt, contrary to the stockier and heavier males, who usually defend their pride instead. Thinking of it, I may have deprived a pride of all their males…" He shook his head. "Anyways, lionesses are more social than males, and you seem like that too. Would a man from your village interact with us the same way you did?"

She thought for a second, before conceding to the fact that not, they would not. Smiling softly, Taiga continued. "Lionesses are also pretty fast, managing to reach 81 kilometers per hour."

"Fine! I see how it can be a compliment, but can you please shut up so we can move on!" Senku snapped, chopping at Taiga's head, who, embarrassed by his info dump, allowed him to do so.

"Geez." Kohaku sighed, smiling slightly at Senku and Taiga's interaction. "You two look a little like brothers, really, now that I can see it." That made the two blink and look at each other, with Taiga lowering his hood.

"Well, we do have identical shapes for our faces…" Senku wondered, before Taiga smacked his palm with his fist, a look of realization on his eyes.

"Oh, I remember now! Senku, was your father's name Byakuya?" He asked his white-haired companion, who looked surprised.

"Yeah, what does it have to do with this?" Taiga's mere reply was a smile, while Kohaku also looked confused.

"Well, my mother told me all that time ago that her brother and his wife had died in an accident, leaving their best friend, Byakuya, to take care of their son. And she told me the son's name was Senku." Taiga's revelation threw Senku out for a loop, as he most definitely did _not_ expect to meet his cousin in a post-apocalyptic world.

"I didn't follow it all…" Kohaku sweatdropped, and thanks to not looking where she was going, she almost tripped. Thankfully, Senku had snapped out of his shock, and quickly acted to stop her with a hand on the pot.

"Thanks, Senku." She spoke up gratefully, while he blinked from the weight, and Taiga raised his hood.

"This thing is heavy. And yet, you keep carrying it day after day, for your sister's recovery…" Senku stated, a thoughtful, yet a little sad, look on his face. "Plus, it's under fifty liters, not enough to fill a proper bath."

Kohaku merely continued walking after recovering her balance, smiling softly. "Ha! This is just my daily training. The water's weight is perfect. Because of this, I've gotten stronger and stronger. Heh… I guess I should thank my dear troublesome sister."

"Still…" Senku shook his head, Taiga watching the exchange with amusement. "Your injuries are not yet healed. It'd be a real problem for us if you just suddenly drop dead from overdoing it. Hand it over."

"Senku…" Kohaku mumbled.

Shortly after, she was adopting a deadpan face as Senku was crushed by the weight, with Taiga thankfully managing to keep it upright. "Maybe you're the one who shouldn't be overdoing it."

"Everyone in this Stone World aside from me must be gorillas… Kohaku, Tsukasa, Taiju and Taiga too…" Senku painfully mumbled, causing Kohaku to be annoyed again.

"Gorilla! Go back to lioness! Even that's better, no matter if Taiga said it's a compliment or not!"

"That's not the point…"

* * *

Later, Kohaku and Senku were rolling down the slope on a makeshift carriage, as Taiga sped up besides them. "Making something so convenient on the spot…!" She was clearly amazed, and said amazement greatly amused Taiga, being evident by his large grin.

"It wasn't on the spot." Senku replied, smirking. "Didn't we have the perfect materials from yesterday's pulley?"

"Pretty much." Taiga finally spoke for the first time since revealing his and Senku's relation, easily keeping up with the carriage. "You can recycle pretty much anything, if you know the way to do it."

"As he said." Senku nodded.

Soon they arrived, with said arrival completely dismantling the carriage and sending a screaming Senku flying. Taiga's laughter probably didn't help. Kohaku chuckled at their interaction, and smiled. "We're here, Senku, Taiga. Welcome to my village."

After stashing away the materials so none would find, courtesy of the survivalist Taiga, they began to cross a rope bridge. While they crossed, Taiga took his time observing their surroundings. They were in the middle of a lake, and nearby he could see a small river leading up to the sea, while the other led up to the mountain range, in which he could make out Mount Fuji. Cross-referencing that, he concluded that he met Kohaku and Senku near Hakone, and he easily remembered that he lived in Odawara, making the beach on which he stayed for a while to tan the hides in the Sagami Bay.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the village. It stood on two small, if tall, islands on the lake, with wooden huts littering the larger island, and a single bigger one on the smaller. As he was musing on that, he caught the tail end of Kohaku and Senku's conversation. "...Just about… 40!"

"Forty?" Taiga mumbled to himself, before recognising it was the number of inhabitants, maybe excluding old people and children.

As soon as they fully crossed the bridge, however, Taiga noticed two people attacking him and Senku with spears. "Tch!" Before Kohaku could react, he grabbed the spears and wrenched them from their grasps, throwing them to the side, but being careful to use enough strength for them to be thrown just out of their assailants' reach, and tripped the larger one, elbowing them on the back of their head, following with delivering a devastating kick using the back of his left foot to the other one.

With that, he had both laying face-down on the ground at his mercy, while he kept their faces near said ground with hands on the back of their heads. "Well, well, looks like we have hostiles." He spoke in a pleasant tone with a smile, something Senku privately admitted made him look damn terrifying, with the hood up.

"Wait, Taiga! They're just our guards!" Kohaku exclaimed, making Taiga blink, before rising to his feet, smiling sheepishly as he moved over to stand next to Senku, lowering his hood. With that done, and the guards having raised back to their feet and recovered their spears, she rounded up on them. "What were you thinking, Kinrou! Ginrou! They're benefactors who saved me!"

"Oh, come on, Kohaku-chan. That's not something you should have done. Outsiders are forbidden, that's the rule, right?" The green-eyed blonde, whom Taiga figured was Ginrou, spoke up, clearly terrified of him, who easily defeated both himself and Kinrou. He wore the same attire as the other, but with sleeves. "You'll make the chief angry."

"I'll put it simply. Rules are rules." Kinrou, the one with brown hair and eyes, added, glaring at Taiga. He wore a dark blue sleeveless karate-gi like uniform with a rope belt and a buckler on his back. "'There's no one outside the village'. Therefore, outsiders are criminals who were exiled in the past. So there's no way we'd let them in. Whether they're your benefactors or anyone else, we can't consider individual circumstances."

"Is that so…?" Kohaku mumbled, grabbing her dual knives, before smiling thinly at Kinrou and Ginrou, as Taiga moved to stand beside her, adopting a fighting stance of his own. "Oh, well, so there's no stopping it. Will you two fight both me and Taiga together? Right here and now? It's two against two, so no one will have the advantage."

"Kukuku, isn't this an explosive situation? Don't you two go making scary faces, especially you, Taiga. You're 1 billion percent terrifying with that hood up." Senku interrupted them, making Taiga and Kohaku ease up on said 'scary faces', allowing the scared Kinrou and Ginrou to take a breath of relief, as he picked up some of the hot water in his hand.

"Bubbles?" Taiga wondered, blinking at what Senku was doing. "Wait, is that soap?"

"What sorcery is he doing…?" Kohaku wondered in turn, watching as Kinrou striked at the bubbles, clearly unsettled by them.

"What are these strange, flying orbs…?" Ginrou muttered, scared. "That guy in the lion pelt said these are called 'bubbles'?"

"Huh? So this is their level?" Senku wondered with a bored face, before said face became terrifying. "Kukuki, well then, I'll take them all. With science, I'll get the manpower of all 40 of them. And make them my allies. This is exciting...!"

"You're the one who shouldn't make a scary face most of all…" Both Taiga and Kohaku deadpanned as they saw Senku's face, who was downright malicious.

"Well, in that case, you should get that Chrome guy." Kohaku sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Huh? Who's that?" Thankfully, Senku snapped out of his maliciousness, and looked at Kohaku curiously, while Taiga watched Kinrou and Ginrou in amusement.

"Fufufu, he's a useful guy. And more than that, he's actually quite lax." With that, Senku went back to making bubbles, and Kohaku joined Taiga in watching Kinrou and Ginrou.

"We can't do a thing to these 'bubbles'! Even if we try to stab them, they just multiply!" Ginrou exclaimed, before gritting his teeth. "...There's no choice! Looks like I'll have to use my secret technique!"

**Secret Technique: Leave it to Someone Else!**

With that, Ginrou dashed away, screaming for Chrome. "Hey, we've got sorcery here! Chrome!"

"Oh, don't be alarmed, Ginrou. I'm already prepared. "I've been watching him from the shore! That's why I came rushing over!" Taiga looked over disinterested, and saw a young man with spiky brown hair and similar brown eyes. He wore a short-sleeved dark blue shirt and matching pants, with satchels hanging from his shoulders, a rope belt and headband, and a dark blue cape. "Yo! I'm Chrome! And I'm about to blow your mind! I'm the genius sorcerer!"

"Sure, buddy. I'm Senku the scientist and that's Taiga the survivalist." Senku was just as disinterested as his cousin, picking on his ear.

"Pretty over-the-top introduction, don't you think?" Taiga deadpanned, moving over to stand next to Senku and crossing his arms, as he had already lifted the hood up.

"Looks like the rumors were right! Saves us the effort of looking for you!" Kohaku stated excitedly, probably wanting to see more 'sorcery', yet, she remained calm.

"Don't be frightened by these parlor tricks, Kinrou! Ginrou!" Chrome exclaimed, shooting a look at the guards. With that, he began popping the remaining bubbles. "These things! Hah! You can easily make them with charcoal lye!"

"I wasn't frightened. I was just confused by seeing something outside my range of knowledge." Kinrou tried the tough guy act, but no one was fooled. Ginrou, on the other hand…

"I was straight up terrified." He was blunt and honest.

"What did you come here for?" Kinrou continued, ignoring Ginrou. "I don't plan to rely on the likes of you or yours suspicious sorcery, Chrome!"

"That doesn't concern me. Do whatever you want." Chrome bluntly replied, before taking off his cape and throwing it away.

"Needless drama. Another check." Taiga deadpanned, mimicking checking tabs on a tree's bark he collected during the trip down the slope.

"Shut up, you!" Chrome pointed at Taiga, glaring. "Do not interfere with this! I will defeat him with my sorcery!"

Taiga merely yawned, what seemed to tick Chrome off. "Look, dude, Chrome, whatever. I bet you can't even defeat me, and if it is like what I said, you'll have no chance of beating Senku."

"Hear, hear." Senku deadpanned.

"Why you… Very well, then! I challenge you to a sorcery battle!" Chrome shouted, facing down Taiga.

"A sorcery battle!" Ginrou exclaimed, as both Taiga and Chrome moved away from the village, Senku following with some amount of interest now.

Before that, however… "Oi, Senku! Can you help me with something?"

* * *

Soon, Taiga and Chrome were standing across from each other, on both sides of a campfire. "Feast your eyes...On my awesome sorcery!" Chrome exclaimed, before throwing something at the campfire, causing the fire to turn yellow.

"Rainbow Bridge! I can control the flames, freely, at will!" Chrome exclaimed again, making Taiga deadpan at his hamminess.

"The flames, they turned yellow!" Ginrou exclaimed. Chrome threw something else, and the color changed again. "They changed again! Blue...Green?!" And again. "Gah! Purple!"

While the three villagers stared at the fire in shock, Senku and Taiga were watching with extremely unimpressed faces. "So this…" Ginrou began, before Kohaku finished.

"...Is sorcery!"

"..." The two Old-World humans exchanged looks, before Senku prompted Taiga to take front. he did so with a deadpan face and expression. "Are you kidding me? I've seen better tricks than this one. Pshew, Rainbow Bridge, what the hell kinda name is that? You just threw different substances at the fire, which, judging by the color, were salt, copper, and sulfur. I'll even tell you that to make blue flames, you need copper or calcium chloride, for red flames, you can use strontium chloride." He huffed. "What a cheap trick. You probably used copper sulfate, not as if you know what that is. Definitely blue crystals you swiped from a cave somewhere."

He uncrossed his left arm for a low-five, and Senku complied, thoroughly enjoying Chrome's absolutely shocked and terrified face. Interestingly, he soon recovered. "What!? Do you really think this cheap trick is all I have for my sorcery!?"

"Yeah, yeah, you probably have more stuff up there in your storehouse. My turn." Taiga once again deadpanned, before grinning as he raised his right arm, that he still hadn't revealed to anyone. Slowly pulling the extra-long sleeve, he revealed the still-petrified limb, the strange mineral reaching to his elbow.

"What!? You turned your arm to stone!?" Chrome and Ginrou exclaimed, causing Senku and Taiga to deadpan at them, with 'them' including a shell-shocked Kohaku and an extremely unsettled Kinrou.

"Actually, no." He replied with a soft tone of voice, contrary to his usual rudeness. "Tell me, whenever you went outside your village, you surely have seen stone statues resembling humans, right?"

Chrome and Kohaku blinked in recognition, while the guards tilted their heads in confusion. "Yeah, what about it?" Kohaku asked, frowning.

"Both me and Senku were once one of those statues." The statement washed over the villagers, with them adopting shocked looks on their faces. But, he shook his head, preventing further questions. "Anyways, as I said, it's my turn. Senku."

The scientist gave him a small bag of gunpowder, which he poured a little and spread over his stone arm, making sure it was spread evenly around his thumb and middle finger. "With a mix of iron pyrite over my arm, plus black powder, we have art!" He declared, making to snap his fingers while simultaneously pushing his arm closer to the villagers, especially Chrome. "And art… Is an explosion!"

He snapped his fingers, that had been covered in iron pyrite to allow for the sparks to be created, and lit up the gunpowder covering his hand. Promptly, it exploded, throwing Kinrou, Ginrou, Kohaku, and Chrome away, while Taiga barely managed to endure the shockwave.

"Nice reference." Senku complimented, walking over from where he had been standing a safe distance away. "Didn't peg you for an otaku."

Taiga shrugged. "Hey, what can you do? These things are really good. Too bad we'll never get to see the end of One Piece…" He mumbled sadly, assuming a downcast gaze.

"Oh yeah… That's really too bad, huh?" Senku remarked, grimacing slightly, before looking at the four villagers. "...Just how long are they planning to stay down?"

"I get Kohaku and Kinrou, you get Ginrou and Chrome?"

"Sure, why not?"

With that, the two Old Worlders moved over to the villagers and grabbed their arms, raising them from the ground. "Oi. Stop acting shell-shocked. Kohaku, you saw this before, even if from a distance!"

* * *

"Say, Chrome…" Senku wondered, as he sat opposite of Chrome, looking around in his storehouse, a while in the night, after lecturing Chrome on science.

"Yeah?" The villager asked, eyeing Senku with a bit of respect, after learning that Taiga couldn't get close to Senku in terms of intellectual capabilities.

"Did you gather all this by yourself? It's quite an impressive collection."

"Of course I did! As a kid, I loved to collect these things, and then I started mixing them, burning them, doing whatever I could with them!" He boasted proudly, and Senku mercifully allowed him to have that, as collecting materials _was _a difficult task, by his standards. "Whenever something weird happened, it was sorcery! Or, as you call it, 'science'."

Senku chuckled at his enthusiasm, before grinning. "Hey, in the morning, how about you help me catalogue all this stuff? I'll teach you more about science this way, and maybe Taiga can help too."

"Sure thing!" Chrome readily agreed, before adopting a contemplative look on his face and glancing at Taiga's bag, that had been left with Senku. "Hey, about Taiga…"

"Yeah?" Closing an eye, Senku began picking in his ear as he absently listened to Chrome. "Fair warning, though. We only met recently, so I don't know much of him."

"Have you ever wondered about what's inside his bag?"

...That was a valid question. They whipped their heads around to gaze at the lionskin bag, before moving to open it. Inwardly, Chrome shouted to the heavens. '_Dammit! I wanted to ask about his arm, but I spoke that instead!'_

"Oh, is that a Loggerhead Turtle shell?" Senku wondered, grabbing said shell and lifting it to his eyes, before shaking it and lifting the skin cover. "It's covered by a stretched out skin, and something inside rattles… Yup, it's salt."

"Wait, is everything made of lion skin? And it feels kinda weird to the touch, too." Chrome asked, blinking as he rubbed the cover of the shell.

"Oh yeah, apparently Taiga killed a few lions that attacked him. Barehanded, I dare add." Senku answered. "And the reason it feels weird is because he made it into leather. It's more durable than regular skin, not to mention a damn piece of work to make. Looks like Taiga has 1 billion tons of patience and dedication, huh?"

"Wow…" Chrome awed, before looking further inside the bag. "Oh yeah, there's lion and turtle meat inside here! Do you think he'd mind if we ate it?"

"No, I wouldn't."

"Thanks!"

Chrome smiled, before freezing, along with Senku. As one, they slowly turned to face a deadpan Taiga, that had lowered his hood and raised an eyebrow. Chrome absently noted he would be chased by every single girl in the village if he showed his face inside it. "You know," He began, leveling them with a flat stare. "You could have just _asked_."

"Sorry, sorry." Senku apologised, before changing the subject. "By the way, where did you go?"

"Oh, I went to collect the pieces of the carriage you made to go down the slope, while also collecting some wood to make a makeshift house." He replied, jerking his head backwards, before jumping to the ground. The two scientists poked their heads out of the storehouse, and promptly dropped their jaws at the large amount of wood Taiga had gathered. "Oh, I caught some game as well, as lion meat isn't very tasty. Maybe I can catch some fish and turtles in the morning…"

"...Monsters. I'm surrounded by stamina monsters." Senku deadpanned.

Later that morning, Kinrou and Ginrou dropped their jaws at the house Taiga had built for himself and Senku. It was huge! "What the hell…?" Ginrou muttered in shock, trembling on his feet with a shell-shocked expression on his face, while Kinrou managed to keep his cool.

"Oh, Kinrou. Ginrou. Morning." Taiga greeted them as he left the forest, carrying some wood for Senku.

"G-Good morning…" Ginrou feebly replied, once more terrified by the hooded young man.

"Oi, Taiga!" Senku's voice filled the air, and he turned to see the scientist running towards him from Chrome's storehouse, waving at him.

"What's up, Senku?" Taiga asked in confusion, crossing his arms.

"Come on. We're making antibiotics!" Senku wasted no time in dragging Taiga with him, back towards the storehouse.

"...Huh?"

* * *

_Yo. Soulmatter here. For the loyal followers, welcome back, with this new story of mine. For the newbies, you can usually find me in the Anime/Manga tab, reading a shit ton of fanfiction. Now, I'm being ambitious with this new story of mine, as essentially the first OC Dr. Stone fic. Please, leave a review, as it's way easier to know if there's something I mess up on, and whatnot. Peace Out!_


	2. Chapter 2

**The Will to Fight**

**Chapter 2 - Primitive Iron And The Mind**

"I see…" Taiga muttered, looking at Senku's roadmap that led to antibiotics. As he was outside the view of the village, he had let down his hood, revealing his head to the others. "So, we're going to make a sulfa drug? Interesting…"

Senku grinned at him, before frowning. "I know, right? But the problem is getting some of these materials. They'll be 1 billion percent difficult to acquire."

"Yeah…" Taiga muttered again, a hand on his chin, as he thought on how to acquire the ingredients. "Iron, Magnets, Copper, Phosphorus, Alcohol, Vinegar, Acetic Anhydride, Ammonia, Electricity, Salt, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydrogen Sulfate, Sulfuric Acid, Coal, Aniline, Hydrochloric Acid, Chlorosulfonic Acid, and Sodium Bicarbonate. That's… A lot."

"And we'll need a serious thorough class to even understand half of these things." Kohaku said, still staring at the chart.

In response, Taiga eyed the villagers critically, before sighing. "Alright, fine, I'll make a periodic table for you…"

"You can make one?" His cousin blinked in surprise, before realizing why. "Oh yeah. The depetrification gave us eidetic memory, didn't it?"

"Precisely, though we still need to find out why. Now, I just need some graphite or coal to work with…" Taiga mumbled, frowning, as he went over to Chrome's storehouse, where he had left his bag. He soon returned with the leftovers of the unused lion pelt. "I can make do with this, but we'll need something more permanent."

"What are you doing?" Kohaku asked, leaning over Taiga's shoulder as he sat on the ground and began working on the periodic table, after Chrome threw a piece of charcoal to him, at Senku's request. As Taiga wanted to focus, he grabbed a small pebble and chucked it at Senku. It hit the back of the scientist's head, causing him to turn around in irritation from his discussion with Chrome, irritation that soon vanished when he noticed what Taiga wanted of him.

"As he said, a periodic table. It'll 1 billion percent help us gather all this stuff, and it'll also help us teach you about chemistry as well." He explained to Kohaku, before turning back to Chrome. "You'll understand more when he's finished."

"Chemistry?" Unfortunately, Kohaku was left confused by it. Seeing Senku dismissing her ticked her off, and he went to have a few choice words with him, as she knew Taiga needed to focus.

After Kohaku's lecture on ignoring her, Senku set about explaining a few 'basic' stuff to the villagers. Much to Taiga's chagrin, as he wanted in on that, but he needed to focus on the periodic table.

Shaking his head, he began with the Alkaline Metals. Li, Lithium. Na, _Natrium_, or more commonly, Sodium. K, _Kalium_, or more commonly, Potassium. Rb, Rubidium. Cs, Caesium. And Fr, Francium.

"Alkaline Earth Metals…" He muttered, and went on to the next column. Be, Beryllium. Mg, Magnesium. Ca, Calcium. Sr, Strontium…. He never understood that name. Anyways. Ba, Barium. And Ra, Radium.

Next up, were the Transition Metals. He made sure to make a little space between the Alkalines and the Transitions, making two small stars for the Lanthanides and Actinides. Sc, Ti, V. Scandium, Titanium, Vanadium.

Cr, Mn, Fe. Chromium, Manganese, and _Ferrum_, or Iron.

Co, Ni, Cu. Cobalt, Nickel, and _Cuprum_, or Copper.

Zn, Y, Zr. Zinc, Yttrium, Zirconium.

Nb, Mo, Tc. Niobium, Molybdenum, Technetium. The first completely radioactive element of the table, in terms of atomic number. Francium and Radium were also radioactive.

Ru, Rh, Pd. Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium.

Ag, Cd, Lu. _Argentum_, or Silver, Cadmium, Lutetium.

Hf, Ta, W. Hafnium, Tantalum, and _Wolfram_, or Tungsten.

Re, Os, Ir. Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium.

Pt, Au, Hg. Platinum, _Aurum_, or Gold, and _Hydrargyrum_, or Mercury, commonly known as Quicksilver.

Lr, Rf, Db. Lawrencium, Rutherfordium, Dubnium.

Sg, Bh, Hs. Seaborgium, Bohrium, Hassium.

Mt, Ds, Rg, and Cn. Meitnerium, Darmstadtium, Roentgenium, and Copernicium.

That was it for the metals. Time for the non-metals. Gone from lines, back to columns. B, Boron. Al, Aluminum. Ga, Gallium. In, Indium. Tl, Thallium. And… Okay, that one was even weirder than Strontium. Uut… Oh yeah, that was a placeholder name. They updated it. Nh, Nihonium, former Ununtrium.

Next up, C, Carbon. Si, Silicon. Ge, Germanium. Sn, _Stannum_, or Tin. Pb, _Plumbum_, or Lead. Fl, Flerovium.

Finally, the Pnictogens. N, Nitrogen. P, Phosphorus, that was actually the same as the latin name. As, Arsenium. Sb, _Stibium_, or Antimony. Bi, Bismuth. And Mc, Moscovium, formerly known as Ununpentium.

To the right, the Chalcogens. O, Oxygen. S, Sulfur, again, the same as the latin name. Se, Selenium. Te, Tellurium. Po, Polonium. And Lv, Livermorium.

Then, the Halogens. H, Hydrogen. F, Fluorine. Cl, Chlorine. Br, Bromine. I, Iodine. At, Astatine. Ts, Tennessine, formerly known as Ununseptium. That was a lot of 'ine'.

Up ahead, the Noble Gases. He, Helium. Ne, Neon. Ar, Argon. Kr, Krypton, or the real life Kryptonite. Xe, Xenon. Rn, Radon. And Og, Oganesson, formerly known as Ununocton.

That left the Lanthanides and Actinides. La, Lanthanum. Ce, Cerium. Pr, Praseodymium. Nd, Neodymium. Pm, Promethium. Sm, Samarium. Eu, Europium. Gd, Gadolinium. Tb, Terbium. Dy, Dysprosium. Ho, Holmium. Er, Erbium. Tm, Thulium. Yb, Ytterbium. Ac, Actinium. Th, Thorium. Pa, Protactinium. U, Uranium. Np, Neptunium. Pu, Plutonium. Am, Americium. Cm, Curium. Bk, Berkelium. Cf, Californium. Es, Einsteinium. Fm, Fermium. Md, Mendelevium. And last of all, No, Nobelium.

That was a lot of work. Taiga groaned as he shook his poor, abused hand, before steeling himself. He had more work to do. Specifically, translating Senku's science babble into symbols for Chrome and Kohaku to understand during the class. The alcohol from the drinks was basically Ethanol, or C2H6O. From that, came Vinegar, or Acetic Acid, whose formula was CH3COOH, and from which came Acetic Anhydride, or (CH3CO)2O.

Next up was Ammonia, or NH3. After that was Sodium Hydroxide, coming from mixing Salt, or NaCl, or even Sodium Chloride, with Water, or H2O, to form NaOH, and HCl. The former was Sodium Hydroxide, and the latter was Hydrogen Chloride.

Moving on, came Sulfuric Acid, or H2SO4. From which, came Sodium Bisulfate, from the mixture with NaOH, forming NaHSO4. After that was Hydrochloric Acid, or H2O:HCl. From it came Chlorosulfuric Acid, or HSO3Cl. The last two were Sodium Bicarbonate and Aniline. NaHCO3 and C6H5NH2, respectively.

"You owe me, Senku… You owe me a lot…" Taiga growled, cradling his sore hand and wrist. Writing this much hurt, dammit! And holy shit, did he write. The entire periodic table and the formulae, complete with translations, took over almost all of the pelt, that he stitched back together rather precariously during the last night, before starting to build. "Alright, time to hang it vertically." The tanning racks were good practice for that. Thank fuck he wanted leather to wear. And the petrification for giving eidetic memory and allowing him to remember all those boring chemistry classes.

* * *

"Totally awesome!" Chrome hollered, allowing Taiga to follow the sound to a hill a little beyond the wall he built. "The Earth is spinning!? Amazing!"

"Yep~ that's right~" Senku moaned in a pitiful voice, laying on the ground as he climbed over the crest of the hill to see his cousin on the aforementioned position, Chrome eyeing the stars with… stars… on his eyes, and Kohaku standing on a tree's branch. "Isn't this enough? If only Taiga were here~"

"Yo, Senku. Chrome. Kohaku." Taiga greeted them, frowning, and shaking his hand to get rid of phantom pain. "So, Senku told you about the Earth's rotation?"

"Yeah, and it's really weird." Kohaku replied. "If the Earth's moving, I should have been thrown off this branch by now. But I'm not. Can you explain that?"

"Oh, that's because of gravity." The lionskin-wearing Old Worlder smiled, climbing the tree to stand next to Kohaku, before walking to the tip of the branch. "Ever wonder why you fall down whenever you jump off something?"

"Not really." Kohaku tilted her head, not seeing where Taiga was going with it. "What does that have to do with 'gravity'?"

Taiga grinned at her, before jumping off the tree and landing on his feet. "You see, gravity is what makes us fall. This force attracts us to the Earth, allowing us to keep our feet while it rotates at ridiculously fast speeds, and we don't feel it at all. It's a bit more complicated than that, but you haven't reached that level of understanding yet."

Kohaku and Chrome clearly wanted to know more, but seeing as their knowledge and understanding weren't up to Taiga's and Senku's standards, they relented. After all, Taiga dumbed things down for them to understand Senku's science babble. Shaking his head, Chrome looked over to Senku. "Hey, I've always thought it to be strange about that unmoving star. Can you explain it?"

"Oh, that bright one?" He pointed at said star, and Taiga frowned upon seeing it had been dislocated a bit from the rest of the stars, along with the ones that composed the Ursa Major constellation. Not much, but just enough for it to be noticeable. "That's the North Star. Or Polaris if you want the actual name. It's one billion percent likely to show you the true north, so don't you forget it. It's hella useful."

"Is that how it is?" Chrome asked in response, crouching down next to a water basin Taiga had overlooked, as Senku got up from the ground, having rested enough.

Kohaku looked at the basin for a few seconds, before turning her head back to Polaris, narrowing her eyes a little in confusion. "True north seems slightly off, if you ask me…"

"But that's not possible. The margin of error is…" Senku replied, before trailing off, a look of realization on his face. "Wait…"

"Yeah." Taiga added, scratching the back of his head. "I've noticed that Ursa Major has dislocated a bit, I think your guess is spot on, cousin."

"Man, so the Earth's axis has really tilted, huh?" Senku spoke up, acknowledging Taiga's words, looking up at Polaris. "Little by little, over the course of 3,700 years, the Earth shifted entirely. Now, in the year 5739, Polaris and Ursa Major have moved."

"3,700 years…" Taiga muttered after listening to Senku, crossing his arms and leaning against Kohaku's tree. "It's been a long time."

"Yeah, it has." Senku replied, crossing his arms as well, still looking up at the sky. "At least now I have an explanation to why my navigation was so off. I was operating on the basis that the skies were still the same as back in the Old World." He blinked, as he suddenly realized something. "Wait, how did you know that Polaris has shifted?"

That was a valid point, one that made Taiga look over at the water basin. "Oh, a magnet?"

Chrome, who was on the middle of starting a speech about something he knew, instantly deflated. "You already know about it!"

Senku picked up the magnet with an excited look on his face, smiling widely.

"Well, well, well, Chrome. You're definitely a busy man. Now we've taken the first step to the sulfa drug. With this…"

* * *

"...We can get iron!"

The resident scientist, wearing nothing but a kilt, triumphantly declared, holding up a large natural magnet containing a few big spikes of iron sand. "Isn't it thrilling?!"

"Nice one, Chrome. Without you, we would have taken way more time than this to get started." Taiga complimented the Stone Worlder, who blushed in embarrassment.

"Wow, just by passing it near the riverbed, this black sand clings to it…!" Kohaku wondered in amazement, gazing at the iron sand she had collected. Smiling widely, she rushed along the river, leaning down to collect more and more iron sand, Taiga keeping up with her.

On the side, Senku and Chrome took the opportunity to laze around. "This lioness is amazing. Are all people on your village like that?"

Senku asked, before Chrome replied easily. "There are a few gorillas with superhuman strength, but Kohaku is the only nimble gorilla."

Unfortunately for them, Kohaku heard that. "I already said I'm not a gorilla!"

Taiga chuckled in mirth, before adopting a more serious expression as he remembered something. He threw his magnet to Senku, before getting out of the river, walking to his clothes as he stretched. "You guys keep gathering iron sand. I'll do my own stuff."

"Taiga!? Where are you going?" Chrome exclaimed in confusion, but Taiga merely smiled as he left, draping his cape over his shoulders. "Wait!"

"Calm down, you two. It's not like the Tiger's abandoning us." Senku said, stopping them, and watching Taiga leave with a mysterious expression on his face. "He has his own things to do, that's it."

"What things?" Kohaku asked, narrowing her eyes at Senku. Taiga was actually better company than the two men who always seemed to insult her in genuine confusion and make evil faces while plotting. The fact that he was going to leave her with these two struck a small nerve with her.

"Hell if I know." The Old Worlder replied. "If I were to guess, he's gonna hunt more animals to make parchment."

"Parchment?" Chrome piped up, curious. Senku grinned at that.

"Something in which he can write better. The lion pelt leather was good as placeholder, because animal skin is the basis for both leather and parchment, but," He paused briefly to glance at the direction Taiga went, before continuing. "Parchment is better overall. Too bad we can't make paper…"

"Write?" This time, it was Kohaku's time to ask a question. While Senku wasn't one to turn down a lesson, he was getting annoyed. He wanted his iron, dammit!

"Put our spoken words out for everyone to see. Instead of hearing, you can see the words if they're written." He lectured, not bothering to hide his annoyance. "It's easier to communicate as well, since people can forget more easily through mouth-to-mouth communication."

"So that's what Taiga's doing now?" Chrome wondered, also looking at the direction the Old Worlder went.

Senku merely shrugged. "Like I said, hell if I know. Tiger's got his secrets, just like I got mine."

"Tiger?"

Okay, when would these damned questions stop!? "Wait, is that a melon?"

* * *

Taiga chuckled as he knew the two would be pestering Senku back at the river. Shaking his head, he returned to what he was doing. Practicing stealth. It had always been one of his strong points back in the Old World, and it seemed it continued to be in this Stone World. But, honestly… The villagers could really work in their awareness of their surroundings. Come on, how long would it be before they noticed him sitting right next to Kinro and Ginro!?

"Hey, Kinro?" Huh? Ginro was attempting to talk with Kinro now. That could be useful. "What do you think about the new guys, Senku and Taiga?"

Kinrou grunted, before relenting. "They are… Interesting."

"Define 'interesting'." The younger brother inquired, turning to look at the older. As Kinro pondered on his question, he noticed Taiga, but neither did nor say anything, thanks in part to the shushing motion the Old Worlder did, and part to the fact this was a good opportunity to prank Kinro a little.

"Well, Senku seems to hold a large amount of information on his mind, despite his physical weakness." KInro began, changing his spear from one hand to the other. "Taiga, on the other hand, holds considerable physical strength, stamina, and skill with his hands. Not to say that his intellect rivals Senku's. Overall, Taiga seems to be the most dangerous, yet the more understanding of the two."

"I see…" Ginro mused. "I wonder how they would react to your words, Kinrou."

"Well, I don't know about Senku, but I'm flattered that you think of me as the most dangerous of the bunch." Taiga suddenly spoke, startling Kinro as the younger brother snickered.

"What the… Since when were you here!?" He exclaimed in shock, pointing his spear at the lionskin-wearing young man.

Taiga merely smirked, before getting up and dusting his clothes. "Quite a while. You two really need to work on your awareness of your surroundings." He replied. "Ginro only noticed when he looked directly at me, and you only noticed when I spoke up."

Kinro merely growled in embarrassment, before looking away, straining his eyes. Taiga blinked, before smiling in understanding. "Ah, I see. Your vision isn't that good, is it?"

The older brother rounded up on the Tiger, speartip pressed tightly on his throat. "Don't tell anyone." He threatened, despite Ginro's frantic gesturing for him to calm down.

Taiga's smile didn't vanish. On the contrary, it became sympathetic. "Don't worry." He spoke, using a soft tone to calm Kinro down. "Your secret is safe with me."

"It better be." Kinro grunted, hesitantly taking the speartip away from Taiga's throat. The aforementioned person kept smiling, before leaving, waving at the two brothers.

A few moments later, Taiga was again in company of Senku, Kohaku and Chrome, watching them try to enter the village for Senku to talk with Ruri for whatever reason. He sighed. Honestly, sometimes he felt as the only sane man there. "The dawn of the Kingdom of Science. This iron stuff!" Someone yelled, probably Chrome, as they walked away to work with the iron sand.

"This black sand we gathered at the river, will turn into "iron"?" A small girl asked, earning Taiga's attention. He blinked, noticing her wearing a melon rind that covered her face.

"Who are you?" He asked, startling the girl.

"That's Suika." Kohaku said, coming up to Taiga's side. "She's been helping us."

He gained a look of understanding, before nodding. "Oh, okay." He said, leaning down to pat Suika's head briefly, before straightening himself back again. "Nice to meet you, Suika. I'm Taiga."

"Ti...ger?" She asked innocently, trying to look up inside Taiga's hood, and the young man chuckled.

"Tai-ga." He stressed out the syllables, and Suika nodded enthusiastically, understanding him.

"Heh." Senku watched the interaction between Taiga and Suika, before deciding to finally reply to Suika's question. "To answer your question Suika, yeah. It will. You just need to mix 4 parts of iron sand and 1 part of charcoal and we got our iron."

"Wow, it's so simple!" Chrome said, looking at the small contraption Senku built to measure the parts while Taiga and Suika were exchanging introductions.

"Kukuku, don't be so naive." Senku said, chuckling. "This is way different from baking our clay pots. The wood, when burning, reaches up to the temperature of 700 degrees Celsius at best."

"For iron, we need a temperature of 1500 degrees." Taiga finished, crossing his arms, a grim expression on his face.

"So, what we have is not nearly enough, then. What do we need to do?" Kohaku asked, a drop of sweat rolling down her face.

They all looked to Senku, who built the tension up before he said something, as if he was going to reply with something incredible. "Blow like crazy."

And just like that, the atmosphere deflated. Taiga deadpanned at his cousin, while Kohaku, Chrome and Suika looked on in confusion.

* * *

As Taiga stalked a herd of Sika deer, he couldn't help but smile wryly at Suika offering to spy around in the village for people that might help them after their failure. He always had a soft spot for kids, and Suika just made him smile, with her earnest attempts to prove herself useful. Shaking his head, he tightened his grip on the knives he carved after Senku showed him how, and took a deep breath as prepared to throw them at a few of the deer.

It was an unusual gathering of buck-less female deer, but hey, he wasn't questioning it. Emerging from his cover, he swiftly threw the knives, striking two deer in the back of their heads successfully. Unfortunately, he missed his other two targets, causing the herd to book it and run. Clicking his tongue, Taiga recovered his knives first, before hoisting the dead deer on his shoulders and walking back to the village.

"It's getting at its apex. I should better return ASAP." He said, looking up at the midday sun. He smirked as he focused on the feeling of the dead deer on his back. Honestly, he was thankful for his fascination with animals, that made him research as much as he could about them. From that, came architecture, as he wanted to build a small house for his dog back in the old world, and this knowledge allowed him to build the house he made for himself and Senku that night.

Of course, since he had an animal he had to take care of, medicine came next, followed by chemistry and biology, since the three were interconnected. After that, he went to research about different foods, and it all snowballed to him learning how to survive with no technology. It was a pain in the ass to learn all those things, but hey, what can you do?

It took a while to see the village again, and he smirked once more as he saw the bigger clearing that resulted from him chopping down the trees. Speaking of the village… "Hey, Kohaku! Can you help me with these deer!?"

"You're back!" She noted, smiling at the corpses hanging from his shoulders. "And looks like you came with results. Sure thing, just give me one of them!"

After they cleaned the deer and separated the food from the pelt, Taiga noticed Senku talking to Suika about something, before shrugging. He probably had a new plan about something, and he'd let the current mad scientist do his stuff. If necessary, he'd help, but mad scientists work better when left alone. "Hey, Taiga." Kohaku spoke, as they finished putting the already cut meat on the shells of the turtles Taiga had hunted. "How do you know so much about animals?"

"Same reason Senku knows all his scientific stuff." He grunted, stretching his back and letting out a relieved sigh as he felt a few pops. "We worked ourselves to the bone studying all we could put our hands on."

"That-" Kohaku paused, blinked, and continued slowly. "That sounds like a lot of work."

Taiga snickered at the understatement. "Understatement of the last four millennia, including this one. I am currently nineteen years old, and I started researching when I was nine. Ten years of work, and I will never be able to know everything I could have." The atmosphere turned gloomy at that moment, as Taiga's expression soured.

"Taiga…?" Kohaku frowned in concern, looking at the strange expression on her recent friend's face, as he had lowered his hood.

He waved her away. "Sorry Kohaku, but… It's just too fresh of a wound y'know." Averting his gaze to the sky, he let out a sad smile. "I mean, everyone I knew is probably dead. I'll never see them again. And all I can do is keep moving forward. Advancing towards the future. Even if…" His voice cracked, as he stubbornly upheld his tears. "Even if I have to leave my past behind…"

He was interrupted by a hug from Kohaku. "It's okay, Taiga. After all, you have us, your friends, haven't you?"

He smiled weakly. "Yeah…"

"And, don't forget what you and Senku did." She continued, smiling at him. "You gave me hope. Hope that Ruri will be cured. So, for that, I am thankful."

He chuckled, furiously wiping his eyes with his non-petrified arm. "No problem. Now c'mon, let's get this meat and pelts to Senku."

"On it."

* * *

To say Taiga was weary, it was an understatement. After Senku had his new idea, he coerced him to help the group collect green foxtail and make flour with them. At that point, Taiga had enough, and kicked them away before proceeding to use the flour to make dough, before following Senku's prompt to make ramen with the deer, fish and turtle meat he had collected.

It wasn't anything five-star, but it was good enough for Taiga's cooking skills. Thank fuck for his mother teaching him how to cook in order to impress Hikari. The thought of his former girlfriend soured his mood for the second time that day, but he banished these thoughts away, deciding to focus on the present.

And in the present, he was busy making more ramen for Senku and Chrome's stall, byproduct of their plan to get more manpower. For the sake of his current work, he had taken off his coat and hood, wearing only his pants and shirt, revealing his face to the world. Admittedly, he only made a hooded coat because he wanted to be able to cover his head in the case of light rain, and because he thought it would look cool.

So, it was quite understandable, based off Kohaku's comment a while back, that he attracted the resident girls of the village, who swooned as they watched him cook the food. In the distance, Kohaku's eye twitched involuntarily, causing her to look around in confusion. Of course, while this happened, Senku rolled around in the ground, laughing his ass off at Taiga's (mis)fortune.

"Hello there!" A blonde girl with blue eyes spoke sweetly to him, and he gave her a slightly strained smile in return. "I'm Sapphire! What's your name, handsome?"

"Nice to meet you, Sapphire." Taiga replied, briefly shooting Senku a dirty look. "I'm Taiga."

Sapphire blinked, not sure if she heard him correctly. "Tiger?" She tried, only to get an amused chuckle from Taiga and blush.

"No, it's Taiga." He stressed the pronunciation, and Sapphire widened her eyes in understanding, before regaining her smile, as Taiga continued to cook Senku's ramen.

"So, Taiga… Where do you come from?" She tried continuing the conversation, noticing that Taiga seemed uncomfortable with her proximity.

He smiled at the new subject, before offering a bowl to her. "Here. Dig in." She blinked, before accepting it with a smile, and moaning in pleasure at the taste, that seemed to be divine for her and the other villagers. "To answer your question, Sapphire-san, I'm from…"

He looked around, noticing Mt. Fuji up north, before pointing northeast. "That direction, over the mountains. I lived there all my life, until recently."

"Are there other people there?" Sapphire asked, her curiosity peaking. Taiga frowned, but decided to answer as truthfully as he could.

"I only know of three people, and that's only from what Senku told me." He said, giving a certain glutton his fifth bowl of ramen. "There may be more, I don't know."

Sapphire hummed in response, and had opened her mouth, about to reply, when an unfamiliar voice rang out. "I want to drink something too~ Like cola or something."

"Cola?" Senku muttered in disbelief, eyes wide with surprise.

"Senku, is that an ally of yours?" Kohaku asked, narrowing her eyes. Taiga silently handed the metaphorical reins to Chrome, who accepted it easily, having heard the exchange.

"No." The reply was short. No need to stall the obvious.

"Kinrou, Ginrou. Let's take a break from our quarreling." Kohaku then said without hesitation, lowering her body and sliding her hands down her legs. Silently making his way to them, Taiga stretched his muscles, snatching the dagger he had Senku make from its leathery sheath.

"Why are you both…" Kinrou began, but Kohaku interrupted him.

"No time to explain. There's an enemy." There was a beat, and then… Action.

The end result was the intruder held at dagger, knife and spear-point by the four fighters around the boulder they had been 'hiding' behind. The 'customers' of the ramen stand were startled by the speed the four had acted, Sapphire almost dropping her bowl. Taiga glanced at the person. A male young man around his and Senku's ages, with reparted white an black hair, the white section being long than the black, baggy black eyes, and a jagged stone mark from his left eye down to his chin, in a weird angled line.

"Answer me truthfully! Otherwise I'll slit your throat where you stand!" Kohaku exclaimed, the four hardening their gazes. "Are you one of the long-haired man's subordinates, you bastard?!"

"It's on your best interest not to lie, otherwise, I'll drag out your death painfully." Taiga spoke in a dull tone, looking down on the intruder with a blank expression.

"Oh, dear... As lovely as being tied up by such a cutie sounds, Haven't you perhaps mistaken me for someone else?" He spoke in a sweet tone, which only caused Taiga to narrow his eyes and dig his dagger further on his throat, drawing blood. The intruder's voice lowered to a squeak. "Please don't kill me?"

Kohaku narrowed her eyes, before shooting Taiga a look. "Ease up a bit, we need him to be able to properly speak."

He took a deep breath, before retaking his sweet smile and tone. "I know nothing about any long-haired man. Since escaping my petrification, I've been alone all this time, you know...?"

Senku rose an eyebrow. "I thought your face looked familiar. Are you Asagiri Gen?"

"Do you know him!?" Kohaku demanded, looking at Senku.

"No, not a single bit." Senku denied, resting his hands on his waist as he narrowed his eyes at Gen. "He's some magician who wrote trashy psychology books."

"Have you read them? I'm sooo happy~ But calling them trashy is cruel~" Gen whined, pouting. "Please call me a "Mentalist"."

"Wait, I apologize for so feely eating some of your ramen." He continued, still with that innocent look. "So can't you lower these weapons for me? I'm already so scared, I'm trembling. I wouldn't want to spill this precious ramen, right?"

"G-G-Give it to me!" Ginrou jumped at the opening, a hungry look as he took the bowl from Gen. "I'll take it for you!"

Taiga and Kohaku shared a look. The man was obviously lying. Kohaku noted that he wasn't even frightened, even if he was wary of Taiga now. Not that she could blame him. The guy could make anyone wary of him. _'Spinning lies… Without the slightest hesitation!'_

"As I was once again searching for food alone today," Gen kept talking, speaking his honeyed words. "I suddenly encountered the nostalgic scent of ramen, and grew weak in the knees!"

Senku kept silent as he looked at Gen, Taiga ready to act in a moment's notice. Only when Senku smirked, did he relax. "Kukuku… Well, I'll accept what you say for now. Anyway, there's no such thing as free lunch. Everyone who ate the ramen! I've got work for you."

Taiga looked around. That meant Ginrou, Gen, Sapphire, Ruby, Ganen, Shovel, and Kujaku. Thankfully, Kohaku had told him and Senku about all the people she knew by name, and pointed them out, which allowed him to recognise them now. He smirked lightly as he looked at the innocent-looking Gen. Poor mentalist, not knowing what was expecting him.

Well, he also pitied the others. Gen was the only one to have earned his enmity, as small as it was.

* * *

"UWAAAAH!"

The six kept pumping air with the new system at the Iron Forge, causing Taiga to wince at the speed they were doing it, as he tugged on the hem of his hood, that he had put back on with his coat. "I know it's necessary to get iron, but… Wow. That's a lot." Ginrou had only been spared because he was one of the guards.

Senku chuckled. "Yup, it is. But soon we'll get iron, and then we'll be able to make much better things!" His expression turned into his "mad scientist" mode. "This is exhilarating!"

"Scary face, Senku. Scary face." Taiga deadpanned, staring at his cousin with a half-lidded gaze.

All he got for a response was a dismissive wave, causing his eyebrow to twitch, before he calmed himself down. It wasn't worth it. "This remodeling has given our air-pumping ability a power-up!" Chrome declared, all excited. "This is Iron Factory, Level 2!"

"With this, and the shift system…" Kohaku began, smiling widely. "Looks like we can do it!"

"Asagiri Gen." Senku said, standing behind said person. "Are Taiju and Yuzuriha doing well?"

Gen paused in his yelling, before sighing with a sly smile, still pumping air into the forge. "Ah~ So that's how it is. For you to frantically challenge me with that kind of trick, it's very brave of you. Are you really going to challenge a mentalist?"

Senku kept silent, and Gen took that as his cue to keep talking. "But rest assured. 'Cause they're extremely well. Especially Taiju-chan with that bottomless stamina of his! You know what I mean? Sen-Ku-Chan~" Gen's smile turned downright malicious at this moment, and the only thing that stopped Taiga from acting was his thinking of why would Gen just plain reveal his alliance.

"He has to be that long-haired man's lackey!" Kohaku exclaimed, grabbing her weapon. Taiga, noticing that, placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her, narrowing his eyes at Gen. "Taiga?"

"Listen to Taiga. He's one billion percent reliable." Senku told her, before returning his attention to Gen. "Asagiri Gen, you one billion percent saw through my trick. But why have suddenly decided to admit you're Tsukasa's ally?"

"Because the situation changed when I saw this." Their gazes went to the forge, and comprehension slowly dawned on them.

"I see…" Taiga smirked. "You saw the possibility of the return to the modern times, didn't you?"

Gen merely grinned in return.

* * *

"To be honest, I thought it'd be Tsukasa Empire's victory, without doubt." Gen commented, watching as Senku put the molten iron in a mold. Taiga snorted. He was currently crossing his arms, leaning against a tree behind Gen.

"Obviously." He retorted, smirking. "After all, Tsukasa doesn't know about me, and from what Senku told me, he thinks that he's dead. After all, you probably came to confirm Senku's death or survival, right?"

"Yep. I'd just need to go back and say: 'Tsukasa, Senku's alive!', and that'd be the end of that. That's what I'd intended to do, anyway." Gen replied, smirking at Senku's work.

Taiga merely chose to look at the curious villagers, as Kohaku and Chrome explained to them what Senku was doing and why they asked for their help for the job. Ganen didn't get much, but he understood enough that he rationalized the fact that he would possibly taste different kinds of food later on. The others were more ahead of him, what with Chrome and Kohaku knowing how to explain things and dumb them down, thanks to Taiga helping them with that.

But, one thing went unsaid, and Taiga heard it loud and clear. _'__However, if you somehow manage to make iron weapons, the outcome is uncertain…'._ "All I have to do is make a false report: 'It was only some primitive village. Senku's dead.'. With that, I can save Senku-chan over there."

"Kukuku, if you did that for me, I would actually be quite grateful." Senku stated, having left his protective coat behind, spinning his arm from the shoulder down to work out any kinks.

"I have noooo policy whatsoever." Gen began, after smirking at Senku. He raised his arms, assuming a faux-innocent expression. "I'm the best smooth-talker in the world! As long as I can live having a good time with cuties, I'm happy! Whether Tsukasa dies, or Senku-chan dies, I don't give a damn!"

He paused, and assumed a menacing expression, his stone mark resembling a fanged maw. "No matter who I have to betray, I'll back the winning horse." As soon as he said that, he crossed his arms, and abandoned the menacing expression. "I'm considering it~ Shall I betray Tsukasa and become Senku-chan's ally!? In the battle of the Tsukasa Empire versus the Kingdom of Science, who will be the victor~?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Taiga stated, smirking as he walked up to Senku's side, looking at Gen from over his shoulder.

"Exactly." Senku declared. "It's one billion percent decided. The Kingdom of Science will be the winner!"

"Whooa!" Chrome shouted, as Kohaku and Suika celebrated. "Finally…! Finally, we have iron!"

"Behold, Asagiri Gen!" Taiga said, hardening his gaze as he gestured at everything around them. "We have taken a village of primitive humans who had no knowledge of science, and are in the process of transforming it into our Kingdom's capital!"

He lowered his hand, and held it at Gen. "Will you become part of it? Will you abandon the modern times? The choice is yours. But, what will it be?"

Gen looked stunned at Taiga's words for a few moments, before closing his eyes. "So that's how it is." He smirked. "Alright, you have my answer."

* * *

_Hello, SoulMatter here! Wow, I'm honestly amazed at how many people are following this fic! Thank you all for the favorites, follows, and reviews! This is officially my most popular fic of the two I'm publishing, and even the most popular Dr. Stone fanfiction! Thank you, seriously._

_I apologize for taking so long to write this, but once I got all caught up with the manga, I sorta lost my muse, and only updated the writing bit by bit. Gen's introduction was honestly my favorite part, and I hope you like the formulas and elements up in the beggining. See ya next time! Happy Holidays for y'all! Peace Out!_


	3. AN

**Hello there. I apologize for spending such a long time without updating, but that is because I lost interest in it. I feel like it was too fast-paced, and I didn't really like how I was writing Taiga. I feel like he was too... Bland and Mary Sue-ish of a character, and I was starting to get tired of writing him. So I just stopped, and dropped out of the fandom for a while, joining others, basically getting a clear head.**

**And now I'm finally in the mood for a rewrite. I'll do both chapters at once, so you'll know when they'll be ready because I'll delete this AN.**

**The story will be in a slower pace than before, and I'll work on establishing Taiga's character further. No, he won't be Senku's cousin this second go around. It was literally a spur of the moment decision, and one I didn't really see the need to add, being literally useless information, since it didn't change the character dynamics that much.**

**Thank you for following and favoriting this story in the short run it had, and I'll be happy if you end up choosing to stay while I work on the rewrite.**

**Again, thank you for reading, and see you when the rewrite hits.**

**Peace Out!**


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